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Missouri:

By [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]• 1 minute ago - Originally published on May 12, 2016 5:22 am
Updated 11:15 p.m. - Missouri has carried out its first execution of the year.

Earl Forrest was put to death by lethal injection at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre. The execution began at 7:10 p.m., and he was pronounced dead at 7:18 p.m., according to a brief statement from the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Forrest was convicted of three counts of murder and sentenced to death for killing Dent County Deputy JoAnn Barnes, Harriet "Tottie" Smith, and Michael Wells in December 2002.

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies... By Andy Dufresne/Shawshank Redemption

Missouri executes Mark Christeson for 1998 murders of mother and two children

February 1, 2017 - 4 hrs ago

Susan Jo, Adrian and Kyle Brouk

BONNE TERRE • Nearly 19 years to the day that Susan Brouk and her two children were taken to a pond and killed, one of the men responsible for the crime was put to death Tuesday.

Mark Christeson was given a lethal injection — Missouri's first execution since May. Christeson, 37, was hours away from execution in 2014 when the U.S. Supreme Court granted a temporary stay. This time, though, the court allowed the execution to proceed, and Gov. Eric Greitens declined a clemency request for Christeson, the first inmate to be put to death since the Republican took office.

As the execution drug was administered, Christeson appeared to mouth "I love you" a couple times to people who were gathered to watch the lethal injection on his behalf. Soon, the inmate's eyes closed.

He was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. CST, eight minutes after the lethal injection, a Department of Corrections spokesman said.

"It was a heinous crime. I'm just happy to see justice finally served," said Maries County Sheriff Chris Heitman, who witnessed the execution. "I have regrets for the family that it took so long, but I hope it provides closure to them."

The killings of Brouk, her 12-year-old daughter, Adrian, and 9-year-old son, Kyle, traumatized the rural area around the south-central Missouri town of Vichy.

On Feb. 1, 1998, Christeson, then 18, and his 17-year-old cousin, Jesse Carter, decided to run away from a home outside Vichy where they lived with a relative.

They took shotguns and went to a rural home about half a mile away where Brouk and the children lived. The cousins planned to steal Brouk's Ford Bronco, said Terry Daley Schwartze, who was Maries County's prosecutor at the time of the killing and now.

When they arrived at the home, Christeson and Carter tied the children's hands with shoelaces. Investigators said Christeson forced Brouk into a bedroom and raped her. When they went back into the living room, Adrian recognized Carter and said his name.

"We've got to get rid of 'em," Christeson told Carter, according to court records.

The family was forced into the Bronco. Christeson and Carter loaded the SUV with electronics and other items and drove to a pond.

Christeson kicked the 36-year-old mother in the ribs and cut her throat. She told her children she loved them as she lay bleeding.

Christeson then cut Kyle's throat and held the boy under water until he drowned. Carter held Adrian while Christeson pressed on her throat until she suffocated, and then Carter pushed the girl's body into the pond.

As Brouk struggled to stay alive, the cousins tossed her into the pond, where she drowned.

Brouk's sister alerted authorities a few days later that the family was missing. A Missouri State Highway Patrol helicopter spotted one of the bodies in the pond, leading to a search that found the bodies of all three victims.

Meanwhile, Christeson and Carter drove to California, selling Brouk's household items along the way. A detective in California's Riverside County recognized the cousins from photos police had circulated. They were arrested eight days after the killings.

Carter agreed to testify against his cousin. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

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Good riddance. Prayers for the victims and their family

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies... By Andy Dufresne/Shawshank Redemption

Missouri prepares to execute its 2nd inmate of 2017

Missouri prepares to execute its 2nd inmate of 2017
6 hrs ago[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

ST. LOUIS — Attorneys for a condemned Missouri inmate warn that the state is preparing to execute a potentially innocent man.
Marcellus Williams, 48, is scheduled to die Tuesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre for stabbing to death former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle during a 1998 robbery at her home in the suburb of University City. It would be the state's second execution of 2017.
Williams' attorneys have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking a new hearing or the commutation of his sentence to life in prison. They've also asked Republican Gov. Eric Greitens for clemency. A spokesman for Greitens didn't immediately reply to a message seeking comment.
Attorney Kent Gipson contends that DNA testing conducted in December using techniques that were not available at the time of the killing showed DNA found on the knife matches an unknown man, but not Williams. He also cited previous DNA testing of hairs found from Gayle's shirt and fingernails that also excluded Williams, and said footprints at the scene did not match Williams.
The new evidence "means in our mind the actual killer is not him," Gipson told The Associated Press last week.
Loree Anne Paradise, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Josh Hawley, said the office remains confident that Williams is guilty based on other evidence in the case.

Gipson said Williams' conviction was based on the testimony of two convicted felons who were out for a $10,000 reward. One was Williams' former girlfriend and the other was his former cellmate.
Gayle, 42, was stabbed repeatedly on Aug. 11, 1998, after surprising the burglar in her home. Gayle was a reporter at the Post-Dispatch from 1981 to 1992, leaving to do social work.
In addition to the murder conviction, Williams is also serving consecutive terms of life in prison for robbery, and 30 years each for burglary and weapons crimes.
After several years of being among the states with the highest number of executions, the pace in Missouri has slowed considerably. The only execution in this state this year was in January, when Mark Christeson was put to death for killing a woman and her two children

The governor of Missouri on Tuesday issued a stay of execution for a man who had been scheduled to be killed that evening.
The inmate, Marcellus Williams, 48, was convicted in 2001 in the murder of a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter, Lisha Gayle, who was stabbed to death during a home invasion in 1998.
His lawyers, who had appealed to the governor for clemency and had asked the United States Supreme Court to stay the execution, had argued that Mr. Williams was exonerated by new DNA evidence.
Gov. Eric Greitens said in a statement announcing the decision that he was forming a board of inquiry to report on the case and advise whether Mr. Williams should be executed

A sentence of death is the ultimate, permanent punishment,” the governor said. “To carry out the death penalty, the people of Missouri must have confidence in the judgment of guilt.”
Kent E. Gipson, a lawyer for Mr. Williams, had said that a test conducted in December showed that the DNA recovered from the knife used to kill Ms. Gayle did not match Mr. Williams’s and instead pointed toward an unknown man. Mr. Gipson also cited previous DNA evidence recovered from the victim’s shirt and fingernails, as well as footprints captured at the scene, none of which appeared to belong to Mr. Williams.
In an interview after the governor’s announcement, Mr. Gipson said he was “looking forward to the chance to get all this out in the open.”
“I’m confident that we’re going to get a favorable recommendation,” he said.
He said that to his knowledge, a Missouri governor had not granted such a stay in at least 20 years.
Mr. Gipson said his co-counsel was at the state’s Bonne Terre correctional facility where Mr. Williams is being held and had told him the news in person.
In response to the governor’s decision, Loree Anne Paradise, a deputy chief of staff for Missouri’s attorney general, Josh Hawley, said, “We remain confident in the judgment of the jury and the many courts that have carefully reviewed Mr. Williams’s case over 16 years.”
She had said in an earlier statement that the new DNA evidence was not sufficient to stop the execution.
“Based on the other, non-DNA evidence in this case, our office is confident in Marcellus Williams’s guilt and plans to move forward,” she said. Ms. Paradise did not respond to questions asking for specifics